Synchronization of Coherent Netted Radar Using White Rabbit Compared With One-Way Multichannel GPSDOs

Accurate and stable time and frequency transfer (TFT) is typically required in distributed sensing. While this has historically been a limiting factor in the design of netted radars, the rise of modern TFT techniques has paved the way to nanosecond level time accuracy, absolute phase synchronization, and sub-Hertz frequency accuracy. In particular, netted systems composed of mobile nodes have benefited immensely from TFT based on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). However, GNSS systems are liable to denial of service interruption. This article demonstrates the use of a fiber-optic White Rabbit (WR) network in an operational multistatic radar-NeXtRAD, and directly compares the results to one-way multichannel GPS disciplined oscillators acting under common-view TFT.

Automated summary

Accurate and stable time and frequency transfer is essential in distributed sensing, with modern TFT techniques enabling nanosecond level time accuracy, absolute phase synchronization, and sub-Hertz frequency accuracy. This article showcases the use of a fiber-optic White Rabbit network in a multistatic radar system and compares it to GPS disciplined oscillators for time and frequency transfer.